Live-blog study presented at ICA

I am very proud that I had the opportunity to present one of my live-blog studies at the International Communication Association conference that took place in Prague, Czech Republic. The title of my study was: "Gratifications of Digital Media: What Motivates Users to Consume Live Blogs."

The study makes a valuable contribution to the still-developing research about the live blog by employing uses and gratifications approach and surveying 339 Internet users, the majority of whom were undergraduate students, to understand what motivates them to read live blogs. The study results suggest that contemporary gratifications - immediacy and convenience - along with information seeking, were the main motivating factors of live-blog consumption. Furthermore, the frequency of reading online news and immediacy were identified as the key predictors of the live-blog use, signaling that digital media consumers have an increasing need to acquire live reports about major events.

The study findings were presented at a poster session on May 25, 2018.